Alpna J Doshi: CIO, Reliance Communications

With extensive data center and IT infrastructure resources, it's no surprise that Reliance Communications Ltd. is one of the first Indian operators trying to take advantage of the cloud services opportunity.

One of the key executives behind RCom's cloud strategy is CIO Alpna J Doshi, who is no stranger to Light Reading. She has already been named as a key individual in for her efforts in bringing together and sharing the operator's network and IT skills. (See RCom Tries to Bridge the Chasm.)

We spoke to Doshi on the sidelines of the Carrier Cloud Forum conference last week, where she provided Light Reading India with an insight into RCom's carrier cloud strategy. (See Building a Profitable Carrier Cloud and Cloud Cover On the Telecom Horizon.)

Light Reading India: At what stage is Reliance in its cloud journey?

Alpna Doshi: We have taken some initiatives on the desktop virtualisation side and then some initiatives on the storage side. We are now moving towards the next stage of moving software onto the cloud.

Light Reading India: Going forward do you see Reliance putting its critical processes on the cloud?

Alpna Doshi: It is certainly in the roadmap. At the same time we are in no rush to be a pioneer here. It is just not safe and secure yet. It is more important to ensure that the service assurance and business assurance is there, rather than to push the technology for the sake of pushing it. It has to bring some value addition.

Light Reading India: Besides security (which you mentioned in your presentation), do you think billing is going to be a challenge?

Alpna Doshi: We look for more comfort level from our suppliers in terms of security issues. I am sure certain changes have to be made in our billing systems as well. I think cloud will help us in billing our customers on a more real-time basis. Also, I think we can go in for a reduction of billing storage by going for cloud.

Light Reading India: What are the new business models which are likely to evolve as a result of this technology?

Alpna Doshi: Any new technology leads to development of new business models. What exactly these will be depends on how much the suppliers are willing to bend backwards. If you think of ways in which using the cloud will [help us] convert our investments and also stop us from making new investments, it is going to be an important innovation in the business models. We might also need to come out with a converged architecture to take the various members of the ecosystem like content providers, management platform providers etc.

Carrier cloud is going to evolve with the perspective that there is going to be a reduction in the captial investment. This also indicates that you have to have service agility for carriers, such that if they have to make changes to their service portfolio they should be able to do it. It should appeal from the quality standpoint as well if there is more downtime than uptime then obviously it will not take off that much.

At Reliance also we are cautious in terms of how to evolve to cloud such that it is at least maintaining, if not improving, the services. It should help us to at least maintain our SLAs [service level agreements].

Gagandeep Kaur, Editor, Light Reading India